The wins keep coming for La Quinta's Scott McCarron

Maybe there is something to this “use a long putter but don’t anchor it” thing after all.

For the third time this year, La Quinta’s Scott McCarron was a winner on the PGA Tour Champions. This time it was the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open, with McCarron making birdies on the final three holes Sunday to earn a one-shot victory over Kevin Sutherland. The closing 64 came after an 11-under 61 in the second round when it appeared McCarron made every putt he looked at.

The victory moved the 52-year-old McCarron up to second in the Charles Schwab Cup money list behind Bernhard Langer, who has four wins this year. So between the two of them, McCarron and Langer have seven wins on tour, including four of the tour’s five major championships, three for Langer, one for McCarron.

What Langer and McCarron have in common is that they are former anchoring putters, using long putters, who have modified their strokes by moving their top hand away from their chest just a bit to adhere to the new United States Golf Association rules banning anchored putting.

The use of such a modified putting stroke has been the subject of some heated debate this summer, with some analysts saying the stroke is at best skirting the new rules. McCarron and Langer both issued statements saying they were not breaking the rules or even pushing the envelope on the anchoring ban.

The putting controversy aside – and it has to be noted that no official from the PGA Tour Champions has even hinted that Langer and McCarron are potentially breaking the rules – McCarron’s third win of the year reshapes the race for the Charles Schwab Cup on the senior circuit.

McCarron is now second on the tour’s money list with $1,706,055. That still puts McCarron nearly $750,000 behind Langer, which is a massive margin given that McCarron won $300,000 for the victory at the Dick’s Sporting Goods event. But when the Schwab playoffs start, the money is no longer the determining factor. It becomes a points system, with the points weighted for the first event based on where a player finished the regular season on the money list.

That would put McCarron on Langer’s heels for the playoffs, something that wouldn’t necessarily be true if the title was decided strictly by money won in the regular season and the playoffs.

McCarron’s huge 2017 season now gives him five PGA Tour Champions wins and four second-place finishes in a career that goes back only two years, since McCarron turned 50 in the summer of 2015. This year alone he has the three wins along with five other top-10 finishes and has a scoring average of 69.00.

Remember that on the PGA Tour, McCarron won a total of three times with six second-place finishes in his career.

The PGA Tour Champions still struggles for recognition in the golf world. When Langer won his 10th senior major this summer to secure an all-time record, some scoffed that there is no such thing as a major on the 50-and-older tour. The tour fights hard for television ratings and space in newspapers and even online.

But there is some very good golf being played on the senior tour. No, it’s not close to the caliber of play on the PGA Tour, but that doesn’t mean the senior tour should be ignored. And if you look at the PGA Tour Champions, you’ll see just how good McCarron is playing right now.

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer, He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook rot on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan.

CLOSE

LA Quinta's Scott McCarron won his third title on PGA Tour Champions this year.
Wochit

Buy Photo

PGA Tour player Scott McCarron, who lives in La Quinta, follows his tee shot at the 1st hole of the Palmer Private Course at PGA West on Wednesday during the Eisenhower Bob Hope Legacy Pro-Am tournament. The Humana Challenge starts Thursday.(Photo: Crystal Chatham/The Desert Sun)